In this talk I shall discuss the governance of the digital as the new challenge posed by technological innovation. I shall introduce a new distinction between soft ethics, which applies after legal compliance with legislation, such as the General Data Protection regulation in the European Union, and hard ethics, which precedes and contributes to shape legislation. I shall conclude by developing an analysis of the role of digital ethics with respect to digital regulation and digital governance.

About the SpeakerLuciano Floridi is Professor of Philosophy and Ethics of Information at the University of Oxford, where he directs the Digital Ethics Lab of the Oxford Internet Institute, and is Professorial Fellow of Exeter College. He is also Turing Fellow and Chair of the Data Ethics Group of the Alan Turing Institute. His areas of expertise include digital ethics, the philosophy of information, and the philosophy of technology. Among his recent books, all published by Oxford University Press: The Fourth Revolution – How the Infosphere is Reshaping Human Reality (2014), winner of the J. Ong Award; The Ethics of Information (2013); The Philosophy of Information (2011). His most recent book, The Logic of Information, will be published in 2019.